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Ezekiel 6 (ESV)

1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them, 3 and say, You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God! Thus says the Lord God to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys: Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places. 4 Your altars shall become desolate, and your incense altars shall be broken, and I will cast down your slain before your idols. 5 And I will lay the dead bodies of the people of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones around your altars. 6 Wherever you dwell, the cities shall be waste and the high places ruined, so that your altars will be waste and ruined, your idols broken and destroyed, your incense altars cut down, and your works wiped out. 7 And the slain shall fall in your midst, and you shall know that I am the Lord.

REFLECTION:

Chapters 6 to 7 use two pieces of information to predict the outcome of Israel. This chapter is the first piece of information that declares that God will attack the idolaters. At that time, there were high places for worshipping Baal everywhere in the “mountains and hills” of Israel, and the “ravines and valleys” also became places of abominable idolatry rituals. The people offered children to Molech in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom (cf. Jer. 32: 35). Therefore, God declared that he would attack the “mountains of Israel” and cleanse the defiled Promised Land. The cleansing work that God did with the “sword” was exactly what He did when He commanded the Israelites to enter Canaan: “destroy all their figured stones and destroy all their metal images and demolish all their high places.” (Num. 33:52). But now the people who use the sword are not the people of God, but the army of Babylon; it is not the Canaanites who are destroyed, but the Israelites. What a huge irony and a bitter lesson. “Yahweh” is a self-revelation name when God makes a covenant with the people. Now, the people do not have the position of the covenant God in their hearts. Therefore, the covenant God allows the people to be killed in front of the idols they worship, so that they know that idols are vanity; and the rebellious people know to fear God only after they experience the discipline themselves. Today, if we call ourselves children of God but do not have the place of God in our hearts, God will also give us severe lessons to let us know that He is Yahweh, a jealous God, and our lifelong trust.

PRAYER:

Come to God in awe and ask God to enlighten you and examine your heart, so that you can see what position God occupies in your heart today. Do you still have the influence of various idols in your heart that have not been cleaned up? Pray for God to purify you so that you will only respect the Lord in your heart, obey God’s will throughout your life, and behave in accordance with God’s will.

HYMN:

Be Thou My Vision – youtu.be/Optrm7lF16s